The Collection de l'Art Brut is presenting Aloïse. The Solar Ricochet twenty-six years after its first show in Aloïse's honor. On display will be the initial group of works by this Art Brut creator, as assembled by Jean Dubuffet, thus offering a historical overview of Aloïse's production. Thanks to the donation that the French painter Dubuffet made to the City of Lausanne in 1971, marking the origin of the Collection de l'Art Brut, this museum boasts a major body of works by Aloïse.

Martin Erhard and his "discreet, disturbed and private worlds" (Astrid Mania on the abc-art berlin contemporary in ART AGENDA (14.09.2012) was the main position shown recently at the abc - art berlin contemporary by GALERIE SUSANNE ZANDER.

A film documentation of an art work of Martin Erhard consisting of 58
drawings, pencil / ink on paper, ca. 50 x 70 cm each and covering a
total surface of 75 x 75 meters.Film concept by Galerie Susanne ZanderProduced by Johannes Amorosa.Copyright by Galerie Susanne Zander, Cologne, 2012.With many thanks to Karin and Gerhard Dammann.

Rosemarie Trockel: a cosmos

Rosemarie Trockel (Schwerte, Germany, 1952) appears in the German art scene, largely dominated by men, in the 1970s. Her art explores various work methods and materials, thus eluding stylistic compartmentalization. Through her creations she questions the categories that legitimise art, social order, gender identities; while exploring constants such as the contrasting conceptions of feminism, the metamorphosis of the subject, interrelations between humans and animals and the environmental impact of our species, the phenomena of fashion, fame, beauty and social icons, the body and also the social construction of the subject.

“Kosmos” was the title that Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) gave to his book on the discovery of America. Humboldt, when he attributes the merit of the discovery to Columbus, makes use of the argument of progress as the result of accumulated knowledge. The artist admires Humboldt for his independent and intrepid studies, and she situates him next to other authors she also believes are kindred spirits.

In this collection of objects, Trockel pays attention to lesser known artists, chosen out of the empathy she feels for the frankness and inventiveness with which they look at questions that she too asks herself. Either in another discipline or for independent causes, these nonconformists provide models of selfless and vocational dedication. They include self-taught artists such as James Castle, Judith Scott, Morton Bart¬lett and Manuel Montalvo, who worked in situations of near anonymity. In general, they were solitary artists who worked with humble materials and with great economy of means, and were committed to their search for a singular vision.

Other artefacts in the exhibition come from the sphere of natural history, such as the watercolours painted by Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) about life cycles in entomology or the works of the Spanish botanist, José Celestino Mutis (1732 –1808), whose recognition came late because his studies were never properly published. At the end of the 19th century the Blaschka family created exact glass replicas of plants and marine invertebrates, which were used for research purposes by both amateur and professional naturalists. Today all of them are more appreciated for their aesthetic quality and the curiosity that their work inspires than for the scientific activity they carried out in various fields.

Rosemarie Trockel makes use of all of them, considering them to be exemplary and inspirational in her own work.

Karl Junker was born
1850 as the son of a bricklayer in the city of Lemgo in North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. His grandfather took charge of his
education after both his parents had died from tuberculosis. At age
fifteen he initiated a carpenter's apprenticeship and, having
completed his trade exam, began working in Hamburg and Berlin. In
1871 he felt drawn to the art capital of Munich, where he began his
studies at the School of Applied Arts and then, in 1875, enrolled at
the renowned Academy of Fine Arts. Before having completed his
studies, Junker embarked on an educational journey around Italy in
1977, where he spent several years traveling. Here he became
particularly interested in the arts, but also in architecture. This
becomes evident from his sketchbooks. In 1880 he returned to Munich,
where he remained for another three years. From 1883 until his death
in 1912, Karl Junker lived in his home town of Lemgo, where he was
commissioned for a number of projects. In 1889 and with the help of a
master carpenter, Junker handed in his application at the city of
Lemgo for the project of a timber frame house.

For over twenty years
Junker worked on the design of his "Junkerhaus" on Hamelner
Road, where he created chairs, tables, dressers, beds, a grandfather
clock and even a baby cradle. Over 115 wooden sculptures, 840 pencil
and watercolors drawings and around 200 paintings have survived.

The gallery will show a
selection of Karl Junker's fantastic architecture for the first time:
two chairs, monumental and rustic at the same time, and the
architectural model of a well, a blueprint for the city of Detmold
dated from 1899.

Alongside the works of
Junkers we will present a selection of gallery artists, whose works
reveal a clear fascination with architecture: Horst Ademeit, Paul
Goesch, Chris Hipkiss, Foma Jaremtschuk, George Widener and Wesley
Willis.

This exhibition was organized in collaboration with
the Museum Junkerhaus, Lemgo. We thank the Museum Director Jürgen
Scheffler for his kind support.

Saturday, 1 September 2012

secret universe III.

Morton Bartlett
11 May - 14 October 2012

The third exhibition of the "secret universe" series presents the
work of the American artist Morton Bartlett (1909-1992). Central works
of his oeuvre are fifteen semi-life-sized dolls, twelve girls and three
boys. Having dropped out of Harvard in order to work as a commercial
photographer, Bartlett began producing these dolls in the middle of the
1930s, attempting to make them seem as life-like as possible.

He studied anatomy books and costume history, learned to sew and work
with clay. It took him up to a year to create each of the figures.
Bartlett designed various costumes and wigs in order to stage the dolls
in true-to-life situations. He inserted them into various moments from
real life and thus he breathed life into his creations through
photography.
His work was created for private use and was never exhibited during his
lifetime. The dolls, approximately 200 black-and-white photographs,
drawings, color slides and costumes were first discovered in 1993.

The exhibition in the Hamburger Bahnhof is the first solo museum
show of Morton Bartlett's work in Germany. The "secret universe" series
has been made possible by the 'About Change, Stiftung'.